Generic valve drives for an internal combustion engine comprising a cam shaft and comprising at least one cam follower as well as comprising at least one cam group, which is mounted to the cam shaft in a rotatably fixed manner, comprising a first cam and comprising a second cam axially adjacent to the first cam, are already known. In a first position, the cam follower is thereby drivingly connected to the first cam of the respective cam group and, in a second position, to the second cam of the respective cam group.
The cam follower can be switched between the first position and the second position by means of an adjusting device and can thus switch on or switch off a corresponding cylinder of the internal combustion engine. The adjusting device thereby has a first adjustable engagement element and a second adjustable engagement element, which cooperate with a respective guide, which is arranged on the cam shaft. The first guide and the second guide are thereby arranged on a slide guide, which is arranged laterally on the cam groups on the cam shaft. The first engagement element and the second engagement element are thereby adjusted between an initial position and a shifting position, whereby there is no contact with the corresponding guide in the initial position, and the respective engagement element cooperates with the corresponding guide in the switching position.
Conventionally, the respective engagement elements are adjusted individually by means of linear actuators and the valve drive is controlled in this way, which, however, requires a large control effort. As a whole, the total costs of the valve drive are also increased significantly by means of relatively expensive linear actuators. However, a more cost-efficient mechanical control of the engagement elements can only be realized with difficulty due to a narrower valve drive chamber.